NEWSCAN
Eleven empowered groups set up to assist GoI in tackling Corona NEW DELHI: In a bid to ensure a smooth transition back from the coronavirus shutdown, the Government of India, on March 29, has formed 11 empowered groups to develop plans and suggestions to put the economy, healthcare back on track in the shortest possible time. The groups would all work under the overall guidance of PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and out of the eleven, nine are led by the Secretaries of various ministries and the other two are headed by NITI Aayog members. The groups have been set up under the Disaster Management Act. The groups were given the instruction to take all the necessary steps for a time bound implementation of their plans. A panel on ‘Economy and Welfare’ is headed by Atanu Chakraborty, Economic Affair Secretary in the Finance Ministry, while two other working groups are led by VK Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and CK Mishra, Environment Secretary which will develop preparedness measures for medical emergencies, supply and hospitals. The suggestions of the group would
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April 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
also be used to increase the capacity of ventilator manufacturing amongst other medical equipment. Prime Minister NarendraModi chaired a joint meeting of the Empowered Groups constituted to review the performance of the eleven groups on April 10. The Principal Secretary reviewed the efforts undertaken by the Empowered Groups. The issues related to supply chain and logistics management for availability of necessary items, efforts undertaken for the benefit of stakeholders involved, steps to assist farmers harvest their produce while maintaining social distancing, further confidence building measures necessary and need to ensure percolation of guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs to the ground level were discussed. The gathering reviewed and expressed satisfaction on the detailed testing protocol and procedure, under which (as on date) 1,45,916 samples have been tested. It was informed that all Chief Secretaries of States were issued instructions to arrange for shelter for the vulnerable groups like migrants
and homeless. Also, Centre is in constant touch with States and District level monitoring is being undertaken. The production of PPEs is being ramped up and capacity building for healthcare personnel is being ensured. NGOs and Civil Society groups are also being mobilised. Principal Secretary suggested that coordination with NGOs at district level be done to avoid overlaps and ensure efficacious utilisation of resources. The progress of the roll out of welfare measures through the economic relief package under PM’s Garib Kalyan Yojna was also reviewed. Principal Secretary underlined that data sanctity was important to ensure that the benefits reach out to all the intended beneficiaries. Steps taken to ensure timely information dissemination throughout the country were discussed and ensuring last mile outreach through communication in regional languages was emphasised. On the technology and data management front, while expressing satisfaction on the roll out of Aarogya Setu app, it was felt that the user engagement with the app needs to be enhanced.
